I tip my hat off to the print journalist who becomes an info journalist. The transition to a visual journalist may not be as tough; as some writers see as well as they speak. In undergrad, there was a running joke among the journalism students when we were forced to take math or anything with numbers higher than 100. I’ll spare you by not repeating it. I’ve never met a more talented group of people whose words will engulf, entrap, persuade, entertain and most of all tell a story. Put a set of numbers in front of them or us rather, (more in the PR and creative writing track versus hard news, too cut throat and panic attack prone for me) we cringe, we cry, we almost faint. To watch journalists with the ability to convey messages and thought through numbers and information, I have the ultimate respect. That is what the culture is coming to…we all have to know how to do everything, whether we like it or not. A jack of all trades if you will.
Information Design, prior to this program, I’ve never paid much attention to. I’d see an infographic and quickly look away…numbers were involved 0_O. I saw the passion conveyed in the documentary and I see a trend of information designers being the new hot commodity. What works even best is if you already have someone on your team who can both be the commodity and maintain whatever their other job was.
Maybe I shouldn’t say what I’m about to say…*bites nails* but I think I will. I think the purpose of new information design (been around for a while, older versions), digital everything, condensed everything is because the world is dumbing down. *holds breath* As a culture, a generation, we need pictures, we need things to keep our attention because out of nowhere everyone developed a short attention span. We need shiny objects and buttons. We need everything condensed, convenient and put in a nice shiny package. It seems like people wanna deem every new thing as a “wow” or innovation. Maybe I’m stuck under a rock or I’m not easily influenced that everything serves a purpose to everybody and that every time somebody makes something new, it’s “the next best thing since sliced bread.” I’ll revert back to my favorite saying “everything isn’t fashion, some stuff just looks crazy.” I think that applies for everything people try to put in a “new innovation/culture/way of thinking” block. *sigh* I haven’t converted yet, as my parents are 1950s babies, I still have my attention span, my joy for all things traditional and I don’t need pictures and shiny things to digest information or any thing else. If I wanna force myself to look at numbers, I can, I will -_- even if I don’t want to. If I want to read, it doesn’t have to be on any type of pad. If I want to listen to music, I’ll go get one of my dad’s records if I want. It doesn’t have to come from space (no tangible object if you will).
I slowly digressed, but the point I make is everyone’s gotta learn how to do everyone’s job and everyone’s gotta be privy to everything, even subjects outside their range. I used to be a dynamic writer, poet and speaker. I dumbed down. Why? I didn’t want to, it just happened. I was innocent to life, didn’t have much exposure to the world. Over time the world’s dominant culture took over. I’m afraid that may happen to all of my characteristics. Soon I’m gonna need pretty pictures and shiny objects. *huff*
I have much respect for those individuals who convey information. The guy with the visual graphic without numbers, just colorful lines…I didn’t know what I was looking at but I guess for the individuals who do, they’d be pretty stoked. As I revert back to my week 3 or 4 comments, I’m just taking it all in. Appreciating it all for what it is and what it’s teaching me. I didn’t come in knowing a lot fancy tech jargon or any tech jargon for that matter. Half of this stuff I’m seeing and hearing I hadn’t heard or seen before. Does that mean I’m not smart. I don’t think so, just had a different focus in life. Some people like green, I like purple. If paths never cross, there’s no need to pay attention to green? Watching the visual journalists and info journalists in the documentary…I’m kind of wishing green would’ve bumped into me about 3 years ago in undergrad.